Dorney Park Online

Knoebels 8 -25 -14

Knoebels 8 -25 -14

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:39 pm

by dorneydude

Started the day a little before noon. The free parking area was a bit full considering school has started some places but we still were guided to a good fairly close parking spot. We walked (with our dog) right into the park, traded our pre-purchased Weis Ticket slip in at the window for our ride tickets and were on our way. We had some ride tickets left from last year too – they don’t expire. To that point we already saved $10 -$15 in parking and $40 -$50 on a ticket for my wife who does not do ride…plus we had our dog with us!

We hit Twister..awesome as usual almost no wait. I have not been on a woodie in a couple of years..the last being Thunderhawk at DP a couple of years back when we used to get season passes – did they ever repaint that thing? Before lunch we also hit Phoenix. This is an awesome woodie with extreme air time. I understand it was brought in from another park years ago. I’d love to know how they disassembled and reassembled it. Further I’d love to know why a park would get rid of such a great ride. Note: They kicked a little kid off for being too small…good thing; he’d be orbiting the moon now if he had stayed on!. Awesome ride.

We hit the haunted house. Awesome as usual. Sure, its not scary…creepy yes…a lot of the stuff is old and that’s how things were back then. It’s a unique experience. We did the Ole Smokey train…with the dog. I’d reccomend the other train…as I recall it goes deep into the woods. We also did the U-Drive boats…again, pooch in hand.

Flying Turns. Finally. I have to be honest here. It’s something new and a unique experience you won’t get elsewhere. So is ebola! Just kidding, it’s not that bad! I appreciate the effort the park put into it. They said they would get it working and they did. But…I would not wait 45 minutes again for it. My guess is the original design aimed to move more than 3 – 6 people per ride…I could be wrong. The reality is, that’s all it carries. Even with two trains running, it takes a long time. The trains each have 3 cars. You sit one front of the other (like on the flume) in each car. The must stage the riders to distribute the weight correctly. Heck, you even have to stand on a scale. (Your weight is not shown!) They have fans running and some areas are shaded which helps with the wait but I cannot help but think that if they knew the turnaround was going be so slow, they would have passed on Flying Turns. Eventually, I am betting that after enough have ridden it, it will be a novelty that is worth riding…but not if the wait is long. I would not call it scary, though my 14 year old said she was a little scared which I thought odd. Its short, does not go real fast and by the time you start to get into it…it over. Still, it’s a different experience from anything I have been on in the past; perhaps that what scared my daughter a bit. Well that and she had a bad experience on a SF bobsled ride years ago…that ride is loosely similar to this one. Anyway, kudos on trying something new and getting it to work! BTW, Flying Turns did not intimidate them, they have a new impulse coaster coming…not sure if they designed or not….

We ate at the park. Note you can bring in your own food and eat anywhere in the park…unlike some parks where you have to leave the park to eat. Pricing is about half that at DP and the food is tasty. We had pizza (real pizza too), sodas, cotton candy and ice cream.

We played some games…junk prizes but not horrendously overpriced.

The park was remarkably clean. The restrooms look like something out of the 50’s but again, were quite clean. I saw no garbage lying around. Dog owners appear to clean up their pets mess as well.

We felt safe at all times though it seems DP has extra failsafe’s in place especially on the coasters…..gates, seat belts along with the lap bars etc. On the other hand, I sensed that the ride ops were not as overwhelmed here and were likely better able to keep on top of things.

All in all, a very nice 90 minute ride on a very nice day made for a trip that did not break the bank!